BlackBerry hasn't released any solid sales figures yet, but others have testified that the Q10 is a failure

BlackBerry's Q10 smartphone doesn't seem to be selling the way the company expected, and it may be because BlackBerry dragged its feet.

According to a new report by The Wall Street Journal, carriers and smartphone resellers haven't seen a lot of demand for BlackBerry's Q10 smartphone in neither the U.S. nor Canada -- and it could be because many BlackBerry users prefer the QWERTY keyboards, and BlackBerry decided to release its full touchscreen Z10 smartphone ahead of the QWERTY keyboard-based Q10.

BlackBerry hasn't released any solid sales figures yet, but others have testified that the Q10 is a failure.

For instance, an anonymous Canadian carrier said that the Q10 was supposed to be a hit for BlackBerry, but that the phone "hit the ground and died" and failed to catch an audience.

In the U.S., Chris Jourdan -- owner of 16 Wireless Zone stores that sell Verizon Wireless products in the U.S. -- said his stores only ordered a few Q10s, and the ones that actually did sell were returned.

Furthermore, Jeff Trachsel -- chief marketing officer at used electronics buyer NextWorth -- said neither the Z10 nor Q10 launches sparked mass trade-ins. Usually when a new phone comes out, people will trade their old BlackBerrys for the upgrade, but he said the number of people running in to trade for the new BlackBerrys was low.

Verizon and AT&T declined to comment on their sales of the Q10, but Sprint did give a beacon of hope for the smartphone, saying that customers still do ask for QWERTY smartphone options.

The problem is that BlackBerry's audience primarily prefers the QWERTY keyboards they've long expected from the company's phones, and are familiar with using. But releasing the all-touch Z10 first when the BlackBerry 10 (BB10) operating system launched earlier this year was a bad move on BlackBerry's part -- especially when the phones were already delayed more than a year in the first place.

Some believe that if BlackBerry had launched its new OS with the Q10, more users would've been attracted to the offering instead of upgrading to something else. Others say it doesn't matter which phone launched first; the Z10 and the Q10 were doomed because they launched in a time when BlackBerry had lost a good chunk of market share to Apple and Android-powered smartphones.

BlackBerry has been struggling to stay relevant with both Apple and Samsung/Google taking over the mobile market. Earlier this month, the company the company's board of directors announced the formation of a Special Committee to explore strategic alternatives to enhance the value and accelerate the development of BB10. The announcement came only a few days after a report surfaced that BlackBerry might go private in an attempt to fix its problems away from the public.

Earlier this week, reports said that BlackBerry executives were considering a spinoff of its messaging service BlackBerry Messenger (BBM).

Despite these troubles, BlackBerry remains hopeful. It recently said that 60 percent of Fortune 500 companies are testing its new phones.

For the low-level employee, jumping ship to a different company is always an option. But if someone in high-level management gains a reputation for jumping ship, he won't remain high-level management for long. RIM's leadership had to do everything within their power to save the company, and they had to believe they could do it. Generally, people who don't believe a company can be saved are not not the kind of people you want leading that company.

Sometimes it works (witness how AMD and nVidia traded crowns numerous times, with critics constantly proclaiming one or the other dead). Sometimes it doesn't. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't try. If you don't try something to save the company, you'll just be replaced with someone who will.

When Lazardis insisted for years and years that their customers don't want devices like iphones, they want email with qwerty kb's and they did nothing, that was denial, not an effort to save it. Today's leadership is in a different denial... They are trying to save what is already lost by the previous bad leadership and not admitting now bad it is.